Scientists identify possible
Alzheimer’s gene
NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have
identified a gene that may raise the risk of getting the most common kind of
Alzheimer’s disease by about 45 percent in people who inherit a certain form of
it.
That form of the gene appears to hamper a brain cell’s
ability to take in calcium, researchers said. If drugs can be found that
reverse its effect, they may be useful in fighting Alzheimer’s, researchers
said.
Most cases of Alzheimer’s appear after age 65. So far,
only one gene has been firmly established as affecting the risk of this
late-onset version.
The gene proposed in the new study, called CALHM1, appears
to have a much smaller impact on the disease risk.
Dozens of other genes are also under study as possibly
affecting risk of the disease.
The new work appears the journal Cell. The work is
reported by Philippe Marambaud of the Feinstein
Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y., and others in the United
States and elsewhere.
They studied the gene with data from
more than 2,000 people with Alzheimer’s and about 1,400 people without the
disease.